Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has plans to take steps to ensure pupils with vision impairment can access transcriptions of accessible notation in (a) braille and (b) large print.

Under the Children and Families Act 2014, mainstream schools must use their best endeavours to make sure a child or young person who has Special Educational Needs, including visual impairment, gets the special educational provision they need.

All schools have duties under the Equality Act 2010 towards individual disabled children and young people. They must make reasonable adjustments, including the provision of auxiliary aids and services for disabled children, to prevent them being put at a substantial disadvantage.

To teach a class of pupils with sensory impairments, a teacher is required to hold the relevant mandatory qualification in sensory impairment (MQSI). Teachers working in an advisory role to support these pupils should also hold the appropriate qualification. The MQSI provides sensory impairment teachers with the specialist expertise needed to ensure pupils with a visual impairment are supported effectively, including modifying, producing and adapting teaching and learning materials in an appropriate medium, such as braille or enlarged/modified text, to make them accessible and training to others in how this is done.